1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of separation of oil, solid particles, and water for environmental and industrial purposes. More specifically, the invention relates to novel methods and apparatuses for separating oil and solid particles from water.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a need for economical oil water separators to process rainwater and industrial wastewater, for removing hydrocarbon and vegetable oils, and also for removing incidentally included oil from machine tool coolant. Coalescing media is often used as part of oil water separators. Coalescing media may consist of stacked plates, composed generally of plastic or other materials, which may be flat, corrugated, or angled in multiple corrugated plates. Coalescing media may be stacked either horizontally or at an angle from horizontal. The coalescing media is the part of the separator which actually captures small oil droplets to remove them from the flowing downstream, and directs the captured oil to the upper surface of the water. Typically the oil is captured on the underside of the plates according to Stokes' law by the oil droplets rising up to meet the underside of the plates and forming a film there and eventually migrates up the underside of the plates to the oil ports in the peaks of the plates. In current designs, oil does not disengage well from the plates because of the plate design. There is also a need for retrofitting existing separators with improved media to improve separation performance.
Current designs for coalescing media are not as efficient as would be desirable because current designs tend not to take into account all the flowing process conditions that may be present within a separator. For example, turbulence generated between plates hinders the migration of oil to and through the oil ports. Also, various spacings between the plates are desirable for different process reasons. Current designs typically offer two possible spacings for a given molded plate design. Each spacing relates to the relative vertical spacing between the plates. Each plate being symmetrically stacked one over the other. Such spacings fail to fully account for the efficient flowing process conditions that may be present in the separator. A system to make such installations more efficient and more cost effective is needed in the field.
Although great strides have been made in the field of separation of oil and water, considerable shortcomings remain.